EffAlt

Developper turned macro investor. Passionate about technology, startups, privacy, history, geopolitics and psychology. Effective altruist.

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

"Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth." — Gandhi

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@SovereignIM Would you apply that logic to prenups? Especially where the man was already successful on his own?

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

It is a great paradox that individually we are simultaneously everything and nothing. Through our own eyes, we are everything--e.g., when we die, the whole world disappears. So to most people (and to other species) dying is the worst thing possible, and it is of paramount importance that we have the best life possible. However, when we look down on ourselves through the eyes of nature we are of absolutely no significance. It is a reality that each one of us is only one of about seven billion of our species alive today and that our species is only one of about ten million species on our planet. Earth is just one of about 100 billion planets in our galaxy, which is just one of about two trillion galaxies in the universe. And our lifetimes are only about 1/3,000 of humanity's existence, which itself is only 1/20,000 of the Earth's existence. In other words, we are unbelievably tiny and short-lived and no matter what we accomplish, our impact will be insignificant. At the same time, we instinctually want to matter and to evolve, and we can matter a tiny bit--and it's all those tiny bits that add up to drive the evolution of the universe. #principleoftheday

[Harrison H. Smith ✞ @HarrisonHSmith]

I might get killed for posting this, the least you could do is watch it.

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@blackscats Don’t post AI slop please

[Armchair Warlord @ArmchairW]

Thoughts on Venezuela now the smoke has cleared.⬇️

1. Trump Doctrine. This operation was thematically similar to last summer's attack on Iranian nuclear facilities - billed as a masterstroke, collapses under scrutiny, and gives Trump cover to disengage from a foreign adventure.

2. As an initial matter, this was all flagrantly illegal aggression against a sovereign state on pretenses so flimsy they're not even legally cognizable. We're literally charging Maduro with violating the National Firearms Act. Dude is going to be a martyr for the Second Amendment, I can't wait to see gun twitter jump all over this lol.

3. This was not actually regime change. Maduro was not a totalitarian law unto himself, he's an eminently replaceable Latin American kleptocrat. The Venezuelan government (to include its senior leadership) and military appear to be almost entirely intact. At the moment they're discussing simply implementing the legal line of succession through the Vice President and moving on with business as usual! In any event Trump discussing somehow picking a new government in Venezuela or exercising authority over the country's governance is a fantasy at this point, we're occupying nothing and we have no leverage.

4. Tying back into the above, all of those senior leaders and that military seem to have gotten the memo to change their bed down locations and not show up for duty last night. The assault force, flying in slow and highly vulnerable helicopters, took desultory small arms fire coming in but not the antiaircraft buzzsaw they should have run into over Caracas given the Venezuelans have had four months to prepare for war. It's unclear whether they faced any resistance at all on the ground - for all we know by that point Maduro had already been arrested by his own military and was simply handed over to the commandos. Certainly the troops were in and out very quickly, suggesting actions on the objective were largely pro forma.

5. Trump has immediately pivoted to an offramp in the Caribbean despite the fact that absolutely none of the ostensible underlying causes of our intervention are remotely resolved at this point - drugs, oil, expropriation, etc. In fact he's been quite clear the Chinese will get their oil, so he seems to consider the operation entirely concluded. As I mentioned above, this is identical to his offramp from the 12 Days' War - conduct a strike on Iranian nuclear sites that was far less impactful than it was billed as to the American public and which was actually below the retaliatory threshold of the Iranians, and then immediately declare victory and leave. This operation feels exactly as choreographed as the denouement of the 12 Days' War - conduct a flashy raid while the Venezuelan Army takes a siesta, get a scalp, declare victory and leave, after which the Venezuelan government shrugs and moves on. Perhaps the Venezuelan government will be persuaded to give US companies some oil concessions going forward.

[Alfred de Zayas @Alfreddezayas]

We are witnessing a civilizational collapse with the EU sanctioning Jacques Baud, a retired Swiss colonel and intelligence officer, for publishing books and articles expressing views on the Ukraine war contrary to those of the NATO leadership.

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@NazarTAMASHEVSK @canardenchaine Quel ramassis de conneries. Beaucoup d’associations reversent plus de 80%, par exemple Enfants du Mékong qui reverse 83,6%

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@IranObserver0

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@garrytan @neurajordan You’re a complete clown 🤡

[Proton @ProtonPrivacy]

It looks like X is suppressing mentions of the "Online Safety Act."

RT the hell out of this and let's see (we'll let you know the results)

[blake @blakestonks]

Maturing is realizing America is the most corrupt country in the world.

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@Mangan150 Medical conditions like hypothyroidism make people sleep more and lead to excess mortality

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@wolfejosh 🤡

[Geoffrey Miller @gmiller]

Yet more evidence suggesting that @OpenAI is reckless & evil, and @sama is a manipulative sociopath.

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@ProtonMail Love this feature!

[Simon Mikhailovich @S_Mikhailovich]

A big step up the escalation ladder as the EU to let Ukraine fire NATO rockets deep into Russia.

I am not sure why isn't everybody worried sick but no one seems to care. They must not have read any history.
https://t.co/qMdlj5eaq2

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

https://t.co/Xpdl8fYoBg

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@RealScottRitter You, an American, think you get to lecture anybody about waging endless wars? 🤡

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

V, you only have yourself to blame. Your poor people skills have led you to hire someone completely incompetent to lead the EF.

It’s time to own the mistake, learn from it, replace Aya and from now on delegate the character assessment job to somebody you trust. You’re just not good at it, and that’s ok

[vitalik.eth @VitalikButerin]

No. This is not how this game works.

The person deciding the new EF leadership team is me. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the EF a "proper board", but until that happens it's me.

If you "keep the pressure on", then you are creating an environment that is actively toxic to top talent. Some of Ethereum's best devs have been messaging me recently, expressing their disgust with the social media environment that people like you are creating. YOU ARE MAKING MY JOB HARDER.

And you are decreasing the chance I have any interest whatsoever in doing "what you want".

Milady.

https://t.co/QRexBxoGT9

[EffAlt @0xEffAlt]

@andyyen @ProtonPrivacy @nsave @Baroudi_Amer @AAbuhashem Wrong nsave X handle, the right one is @nsavecom